


Friendship in Blue and Gray

by Blueberryshortcake



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen, Random word generator, friendship fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-14
Packaged: 2019-04-21 12:13:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14284689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueberryshortcake/pseuds/Blueberryshortcake
Summary: I used a random word generator to write some short Caboose and Wash friend fics.Words: 1. Copper 2. Explain 3. Ill-fated 4. Truck 5. Neat 6. Unite 7. Branch 8. Educated 9. Tenuous 10. Hum 11. Decisive 12. Notice.





	1. Copper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If it’s heads pick it up, if it’s tails flip it and leave it for someone else to find.

“Find a penny pick it up then all day you’ll have good luck!”

Wash glanced back, confused. “You found a penny?”

Caboose was bent down and held up the little copper disk showing it to Wash. A small hole was drilled in it and ‘Lucky Me’ engraved on the face side. A good luck charm.

It made Wash tense.

“There might be others nearby, and with our usual luck it'll be people that want to shoot us…we should keep moving,” He glanced around looking for other signs of life. “Get back to the others. Maybe go a different way.”

“Okay,” Caboose agreed, unbothered by the change of plans. They walked back towards their camps. Wash gripped his gun a bit tighter.

“Agent Washington?”

“Yeah Caboose?” His eyes continued to sweep back and forth. Caboose stepped in front of him abruptly.

“Cab–!!”

“Here!” Caboose held out the penny to him.

Wash stared, dumbfounded. “The penny?”

Caboose nodded and pushed closer. “This is for you! For good luck,” He explained. “So no one shoots you.”

“You… want to give it to me?”

Caboose nodded again.

Wash held out his hand and accepted the penny.

“Are you sure? It’s… not something you’ll find easily…it’s kind of rare out here.”

“That’s okay, Wash. You keep it. You get shot at a lot more than me.”

Wash looked down at the penny in his hand and smiled. “Good point.”  


	2. Explain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If you give a Grif a Cookie…

“I can explain,” Caboose said.

Wash highly doubted it, but indicated for Caboose to go on.

“Grif asked for a cookie!” Caboose gestured at the disaster that was their kitchen.

  
“Alright…” Wash said slowly. “That doesn’t explain everything though.”

Caboose waved his arms. “No! It does! It does! I didn’t have a cookie, so I made him one.”

“Okay…”

Caboose gestured to the three trays of burnt black things, and one tray of semi-cookie looking things.

“He ate some and then he started yelling!” Caboose exclaimed. “And asked for some milk!”

Wash glanced around the kitchen. He noticed Carolina’s ghost peppers mixed in among the chocolate chips and jelly beans. Hmm.

“So you got him milk,” Wash nodded.

“Right!!!” Caboose scratched his head, “But then, he got very mad.”

“And why is that Caboose?”

“He said MILK MILK MILK!!!! So I threw the milk on him.”

That would be the puddle of milk on the floor…

“So then he asked for a towel. He was getting really shouty, so I gave him the closest towel!” Caboose fidgeted.

“Tucker’s private time towel?”

“How did you know?!”

Ew… alright. “Okay so I take it he didn’t like that either?”

“He didn’t,” Caboose crossed his arms defensively. “He is REALLY tough to please! So then he yelled that he needed a bath, so I showed him where the tub is, but then he wanted soap.” Caboose huffed. “He is a very demanding person.”

“Sounds like it,” Wash agreed. “So soap?”

“Yes, well, I did not know where the bubble bath was…”

Carolina had hid it because Tucker had been hogging it.   
  
“So instead you gave him….?”

“Laundry soap!” Caboose said. “It’s STILL SOAP!”

Bubbles still oozed out of the bathroom.

“Mhm, that’s reasonable.”  
  
“HE used too much!”

“Right, then what?”

“All his clothes were soapy, so he needed clothes, but none of of ours fit Grif so I MADE him some while I put his in the dryer.”

The couch’s throw had a head sized hole in the middle… so that was probably that…

“Had he calmed down?”

“A bit,” Caboose nodded. “He started grumbling. If Simmons was here I woulda thought he was talking to Simmons, like he always does. But Simmons wasn’t there. I had stopped listening. He talks a lot.”

“So the clothes came out of the dryer, but he didn’t go home?”  

Caboose gave him a long suffering look.

“He SAID he was hungry and that I should feed him after all the trouble.”

“After the first cookie?” Wash asked.

“Well I offered him another one, but he said HE would get it himself! Can you believe that?!?”

“I can,” Wash glanced at Grif, still unconscious on their kitchen floor. “So, he slipped on the milk and hit his head basically.”

“Went to sleep,” Caboose corrected. “I put a pillow under his head.”

Grif gave a little moan from the floor.


	3. Ill-fated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After everything’s said and done you can’t make any promises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The start is just references to the season 16 trailer. It doesn’t have any spoilers for 16 actually in it.
> 
>  
> 
> Warning: Talking about death, angsty chapter.

Everyone spoke at once.

“And Donut floated!”

“Four arms!”

“I just wanted pizza.”

Wash listened as they filled him in on what they had been doing.

“I’m just glad it’s over,” Grif said, “Maybe we can FINALLY have some time off.”

“What? We’re badass heroes, we don’t get time off!” Tucker said.

The only one who wasn’t talking was…

Caboose stood in the back, very quiet. 

Carolina had… told him what happened. That the message from Church was a fake… and with the other’s going on this adventure…maybe there hadn’t been a lot of time to process. It might be hitting him now.

“Okay, okay,” Wash said softly. “Still sorta hurts to talk so let’s talk later.”

“Mighty Freelancer admitting he’s hurting?” Tucker gasped dramatically.

“Yeah yeah, go on.”

Everyone cleared out except Caboose. Carolina paused and then closed the door behind her leaving them alone.

Without the others it became clear Caboose was sniffling inside his helmet.

Oh shit–he might be getting better at the whole…friendship thing…but–

Before he could say anything he was crushed between Caboose’s arms.

After the initial shock he awkwardly patted Caboose on the back. “It’s okay, buddy.” He managed. “I…maybe he–”

“I know what death is.”

Wash froze. This was out of his element and in another universe. Caboose didn’t let go of him, his head heavy on Wash’s shoulder.

“The mean man who looked like Church. He said I didn’t understand death, but I do!” He seemed to be overcome again and went silent, sniffing.

“I…it’s okay,” Wash repeated still unsure of what to say.

“I am glad you are not gone.” Caboose said. He let go and quickly left before Wash could come up with anything comforting to say.

-

It was the third night in a row that Wash had woken up with Caboose crawling into his bed.

They hadn’t talked about it. They hadn’t really talked about anything.

They should talk about it. HE should talk about it.

Why was talking so terrifying.

He’d rather get shot at. At least he knew what to expect. Emotions, other peoples, his own, it just… wasn’t easy. He had been in his own head enough to know he didn’t like it there. Moving and doing and planning ahead was easier.

But Caboose was hurting, he obviously needed … something.

“I’m sorry, Caboose.”

“About what?” Caboose asked sleepily.

“About Church.” It felt like leaping off that goddamn skyscraper back in the old days.

Caboose didn’t speak. He shuffled in the bed, but remained quiet.

“When you said you know what death is…I…” He wasn’t letting himself think between sentences. “It’s not easy when it’s–”

“Church is gone,” Caboose interrupted. “But somewhere else, he is there. Somewhere else I am just meeting him…and it would not be good if I never got to meet him because I took him away…”

“I…but I know it’s hard not being with him anymore.”

“…Yeah… but I’m used to it now… I wish it were different, it still hurts when I think about it. Epsilon…was not Church. He was Church and he was my friend. And I miss him…but he wasn’t…Church. Church has been gone a very long time.”

Wash nodded in the dark feeling a stab of guilt. If he hadn’t–

“I don’t want you to disappear like Church.” Caboose said.

“What?” Wash turned towards Caboose’s shadowed figure. A large sloping shoulder outlined by a trickle of light from the hallway.

“You were not with us. Just like Church. You were gone. And everyone said you were alright, but they also think I don’t know what Death is. Like the mean man. I thought they were lying to me, so that I wouldn’t feel bad. But that made me feel… very bad.”

_“I’m an emotional time bomb!”_

“I’m right here,” Wash said. “Is… that why you’ve been coming in here?”

“I don’t want you to disappear like Church!” Caboose repeated, suddenly grabbing his hand and gripping it tight. “I’m just–I’m just making sure.”

“Oh, Caboose…I don’t…” He was going to reassure. Promise not to go anywhere…but could he really make that promise? Even now. Even with the Reds and Blues, he was most likely to die in a firefight or by a deadly weapon. It would be a lie to suggest otherwise. And it seemed… Caboose didn’t want an easy lie.

“I’m going to turn on the light,” Wash said instead. Caboose let go of his hand. Wash clicked on the lamp.

Wash reached over to his helmet which was on the bedside table. “Look in here.”

Caboose scooted close and peered inside. Wash carefully pulled at the piece of electrical tap at the bottom back revealing a little copper disk.

“…The lucky penny,” Caboose said. He slowly smiled, but his smile fell into a frown. “It was supposed to stop people from shooting you.”

“I think it would take more than a penny,” Wash said kindly. “But it’s with me.”

Caboose sighed running his finger over it.

“Do you want to know…what Church thought about death?”

Caboose startled and looked at him, then nodded.

“He didn’t believe in God really, but he believed in the universe. In universal cycles. Energy can never be created or destroyed, it can only change forms.”

“Church changed forms a lot,” Caboose agreed. “Once he was a floating eyeball.”

“Right. Well…he thought we all go around and around. And maybe things change and maybe they don’t. Not even as people but as…energy and molecules.” It was hard to explain. It was only… surface memory. Beliefs, convictions that had built up into a memory that was someone else’s. He couldn’t explain how Church had got to that belief, but he knew that was what he truly thought.

“What’s that?”

There was another patch of electric tape holding a small object in place. Wash pulled it off. “It was a small metal charm. A cat sitting on a moon.

“One of my older sisters gave it to me before I shipped out,” That was… a long time ago. “Why don’t you have it?”

“Oh, but, that is from your sister–”

“I’ll hold on to your penny, and you hold on to my space cat,” Wash said putting it in Caboose’s hand. “And even if either of us go away… we’ll still have that. We’ll remember.” It was the only thing Wash could promise. Meaningless objects in space. Stardust. But that had given Church a weird sort of comfort. To be recreated and find your way home… whatever home is. Whatever form is.

“Memory is the key,” Caboose took the cat charm. “Okay. I will go and put him in my helmet. I will look after him…I think, I’ll sleep in my own room tonight after all…as long as you won’t be lonely.”

He might be, but that’s alright. “I’m fine. I know where you are if I need you.”

Caboose grinned, tension finally leaving his body. “Thank you, Wash…just so you know I would appreciate it if you did not get shot at anymore.”

Wash laughed. “Me too, buddy.”


End file.
